Pranjali Awasthi is an Indian entrepreneur who is known for raising $450,000 (Rs 3.7 crore) in funding for her Artificial Intelligence startup called Delv.AI at the age of 16 years.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Pranjali Awasthi was born in the year 2007 (age 16 years old; as of 2023) in India. Her family moved to Florida, USA when she was 11 years old. She started learning coding when she was just 7 years old. At 13, she began her internship in university research labs at Florida International University. While working on machine learning projects, she simultaneously attended high school, Doral Academy Charter High School, majoring in Linear Algebra and Calculus. [1]Pranjali Awasthi – LinkedIn
Physical Appearance
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Her father is an engineer.
Husband & Children
Pranjali is not married.
Career
Pranjali Awasthi started her company Delv.AI during her internship in university research labs. She was accepted to the September 2021 HF0 residency where she launched her product. Her responsibilities included conducting searches, data extraction, and crafting literature reviews. In 2020, when OpenAI unveiled its ChatGPT-3 beta, she recognized its potential to promote and enhance research data extraction and summarization. Although Delv.AI was at its budding stage, she was determined about establishing a company that would use machine learning to extract data and remove data silos. Her time at HF0 ended when she secured her inaugural investment from On Deck and Village Global. The seed funding received in early 2022 enabled her to recruit her first engineer and commence work on a minimum-viable product. Throughout her fellowship, she was able to make strong ties within the A.I. community. Moreover, because of her triumphant Product Hunt launch, these connections proved invaluable during subsequent fundraising efforts. She managed to gather $450,000 from a combination of funds and angel investors like Lucy Guo and Village Global, resulting in a valuation of around $12 million. [2]Business Insider
Social Entrepreneurship
Pranjali’s passion for social entrepreneurship started during her childhood in India. During visits to her grandfather, a farmer, she would see him mentoring village children to build their artisanal skills. She recalls the handmade fashion items they crafted as both chic and trendy. Recognizing their global appeal, she planned to sell them without the interference of intermediaries who often took large cuts, leaving the creators with meager earnings. This inspired her to establish ‘Indic Valley’, an online portal showcasing these artisanal creations. Pranjali’s ambition is to empower these craftsmen by granting them ownership and control over their work on this platform.
Pranjali in conversation with the artisans in India
Despite the challenges amplified by the pandemic, she successfully garnered external investments. With these funds, she was able to gather an initial group of roughly 30 artisans for her site, streamlined the company’s framework, and ironed out the logistics. Indic Valley presents a range of eco-friendly, handcrafted wooden bangles, shawls, footwear, and more, all originating from the heart of India’s villages.
Awards and Achievements
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– Issued by Masason Foundation (Jun 2023)
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– Issued by IEEE Canada Young Professionals Committee (Nov 2021)
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– Issued by Backend Capital (Sep 2021)
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– Issued by Mathematics Association of America (Feb 2021)
Favourites
- Indian Snacks: Parle G, Momos
Facts/Trivia
- Pranjali always looked up to her father, who believed that computer science should be included in the school curriculum alongside other foundational subjects. His passion for the subject inspired her to get into coding at the young age of seven.
- During the COVID pandemic, the shift to virtual learning in schools enabled her to take up an internship. She dedicated approximately 20 hours weekly to the Schwartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, a part of the Institute of Neural Computation at the University of California San Diego.
- Throughout her research internship, Pranjali was aware of the increasing difficulty in identifying specific information on search engines. This realization drove her to think about how AI could remove this challenge. This eventually gave birth to her company, Delv.AI. The primary mission of Delv.AI is to assist researchers in easily getting specific details amid the vast universe of online content.
- In 2021, Pranjali attended Miami Hack Week where she met Lucy Guo and Dave Fontenot, both partners at Backend Capital. The duo had also founded the HF0 residency, a live-in startup accelerator based in San Francisco and Miami.
Pranjali at Hackerfellow
- She secured a place in their September 12-week program in exchange for a minor stake in her future enterprise. After taking the advice of her parents who believed in the invaluable networking opportunity it presented, she took a break from high school. The residency covered her daily commute to and from the house via Uber.
- A highlight of her residency was the launch of Delv.AI’s beta version on Product Hunt, which also coincided with her 15th birthday. Her product climbed to become the third most sought-after product of the day.
- Her Indian heritage meant academics were a familial priority. Although she considered pursuing a GED, she made a comprise by completing her high school credits online. She completed her school in June 2023. Her parents supported her in the decision to skip college for the moment to continue focusing on her business.
- Pranjali has been a spokesperson for many events like Rising 2021: Women in AI where she spoke about inspiring youngsters to pave a career in AI. She also spoke at AI Summit in New York where she spoke on ML in Modern Healthcare.
A hoarding of Pranjali as a spokesperson
- She said she might consider going to college later to learn new business skills like law and psychology. [3]Hindustan Times
- She has remarkable test scores in her competitive exams. She got a score of 35 on her ACT in 2022 and a score of 5 in AP Calculus BC, Computer Science, and Physics in 2021.
- She is called ‘P’ by her batch mates and team members. [4]Pranjali Awasthi – Twitter
- Her hobbies include playing piano and badminton.
- Inspired by Prajali, her old high school opened a whole building for AI enthusiasts in Blockchain learning and Cyber Security courses.
Pranjali’s tweet about her old high school
References
